Video conferencing systems enable participants of a video conference who are at different locations to communicate using two-way video and audio transmissions. For instance, the video conference may be hosted by participants in a conference room (a.k.a. in-room participants), and the video conferencing system may enable the in-room participants to communicate in real-time with other participants (e.g., remote participants) who are not in the conference room. A video camera is often positioned in the conference room to capture images of the in-room participants. Many traditional video cameras have a field of view that is too narrow to capture all of the in-room participants unless the in-room participants are located in a designated portion of the conference room that corresponds to the field of view.
360-degree video cameras have become increasingly popular in recent years for use in video conferences because such cameras are intended to have a 360-degree field of view that is capable of capturing all of the in-room participants. Even with the use of a 360-degree video camera, the remote participants often are presented with a screen that shows a single continuous camera view that includes one or more of the in-room participants.
If the single continuous camera view captures all of the in-room participants, the remote participants may not be able to distinguish interactions that occur between the in-room participants shown on the screen. For instance, the remote participants may not be able to distinguish who is speaking and/or with whom the speaker is directing the speech. The remote participants may not be able to distinguish gestures (e.g., hand gestures, head nods, pointing) of the in-room participants. On the other hand, if the single continuous camera view focuses on certain in-room participants to the exclusion of other in-room participants, the remote participants are unable to see the other in-room participants and may therefore miss interactions of the other in-room participants.